Mexico weekly ledger., 1887-05-12

= s''' AND SIR. CLAY:
All these veins are visible in the
immediate vicinity of Mexico. The
first can be seen as a mere thread in
the cut of the Wabash nearest Salt
River west of this city, The second
crops out in the rear of the old Gra-
ham mansion and in a hollow near
Clark's dairy. The shale at Fiat
Rock belongs to this strata. The
third was r~e-opened and worked last
winter in Abby's pasture and found
to 80 inches thick and to be covered
with a substantial slate roof similar
to that of the vein at Vandalia. It
has also a deep bed of fire clay be-
meath it, and these facts and others
that might be mentioned, lead to the
conclusion that the strata of coal and
clay at Vandalia is an extension of
that in Abby's pasture. The other
two veins existing &C Mexico have
not been seen, as get, near Vandalia.
Some persons have said to the
writer, that the site of Vandalia is
low. On the contrary it is elevated.
The ground descends from the town
IN every direction, and its buildings
are conspicuous in all their surround
ings. 1t is probable the hill on
which it stands is the outlying ridge
of the Audrain coal and clay meas
ures.. At all events, it constitutes
part of the divide on which the Chi
cago & Alton road reaches Mexico,
and i'll which and its connections,
there are indications of the existence
of both coal and clay. That an abor-
tive effort or two have been made to
find them, should discourage no me-.
1t is we'll known that there are faults,
breaks and intermits in all measures,
and that coal has often been dlscov-
cred at short distances from where
it was thought it had been fully and
practically demonstrated it did not
exist.
The clay heretofore used at the
pottery in Mexico, has been obtained
from the old Hill farm, low owned
by Mr.. d. A Snead, where the strata
has been washed off in part, and the
remaining clay exposed to the action
of the elements. On this account it
can be worked without crushing, but
having been thus left unprotected for
years, it is necessarily more or less
mixed and adu!terated With sand,
vegetable matter. izing glass and iron
ore, and therefore IL a less reliable
manufacturing material than the same
clay obtained from an uncovered
bed. Besides, a ton of this clay
costs the Mexico pottery a dollar aud
a quarter, while that used in Vanial-
ia is mined. hoisted and delivered for
20 cts. per ton of the II | md % cts.
per ton of the whittier and harder
variety.
Assuming that an acre is 20 yards
square, and that q bed Of clay is Is
feet feet or 5 yards thick. the follow
ing formula will give the number of
tons of hat material in such an ap-
proximate acre: 70x70x5=25.400
tons. And the following formula
will give the number of tons of coal
Everything such an amount Of clay
where the vein " coal is 80 inches or
p feet thick: 210x2l0x24-27=
4,Os3 tons, or 90. 6S4 bushels.
Now, as it is reasonable to suppose
that such a strata of coal and clay as
has been described exists in every
ridge in the vicinity of Mexico from
which it oEtcrops, it requires no
strain of imagination to discover how
important such deposits are and how
conducive to progress they may be
made by skillful and practical use of
them. 1t might be, and indeed has
been, that the existence of a 80 inch
VEIN of coal attracted little attention,
or that those that went so far as to
Examine it, concluded it was an in,